


Meeting the family

by StrangeNoise



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, Lots of Cats, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Swearing, catching feels, emotionally constipated Gavin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 08:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20543039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeNoise/pseuds/StrangeNoise
Summary: RK discovers a new side to his partner Gavin Reed when the detective takes him home to meet his cats...





	Meeting the family

When he walked up the stairs to Gavin’s flat, RK was not exactly sure, why any of this was happening. Granted, he remembered asking the detective about ways to improve their working relationship and he also remembered Gavin snapping something along the lines of “How?! You wanna come home with me and pet my cats or what?!”. After that, RK had said yes and Gavin had said okay and both had probably been equally confused by the other’s agreement, but neither had dared to back out.

So, now RK was following his human partner home on their lunch break to meet his cats so they could get along better at work. Sometimes, RK had to admit he did not understand how humans functioned. At all. But if petting some cats could get Gavin to work with him properly, confusion was a sacrifice he was willing to make. 

They eventually stopped in front of a door on the third floor and Gavin fished his keys out of his pocket.

“Alright. I’ll open this door and you simply go in, okay?”, he said and before RK could ask why he thought instructions were needed, added, “I got a new kitten five weeks ago and she always tries to break out and I’m really not in the mood to chase her through the hallway instead of getting lunch. Got it?”

“Got it”, RK replied, waiting patiently for Gavin to unlock the door.  
Once it was open, the android did not even get the chance to step inside, before Gavin bent down next to him with a shout of “Hell no, you stay the fuck indoors!”

When the detective got to his feet again, he held a ball of grey fur in his hands, struggling to get out of his hold. 

“Get in, tin can”, he ordered, “Before the others decide they want out, too.”

RK stepped inside and looked around. He had not expected his partner’s flat to look like this and despite hating it when he was wrong, this was quite a pleasant surprise. The flat was spacious and way tidier than RK could have concluded from the mess on Gavin’s desk. The furniture was modern and functional except for the sofa that looked like Gavin had owned it since his teens. 

“Alright, you done staring at my stuff?”, Gavin asked behind him and RK turned to face him, finding he still held the kitten in his arm.  
“That’s Furball”, the detective said by way of introduction, “She loses even more hair than the others which is a real pain in the ass to clean, but I guess that’s my fault for wanting a baby Maine-coon.” 

Gavin ruffled the kitten’s fur a bit with a fond smile. RK had never seen a look like that on his partner’s face and his processors began working harder as he tried to capture it in its entirety. 

His concentration was interrupted, though, by something bumping against his leg. 

“That’s Skittles”, Gavin said and knelt down. He let go of Furball and ran his head over Skittles’ head a few times.

“Bob’s on the couch. He probably won’t come over. He’s a lazy piece of shit”, the detective said, nodding over to where the cat was and getting to his feet.

“He seems to be rather heavy for a cat”, RK noted and within an instant, Gavin’s good mood seemed to evaporate.

“Aren’t you a rude piece of plastic? I introduce you to the prettiest cats in all of Detroit and all you do is insult Bob, ‘cause he’s fat. Fuck you, I’m getting lunch.”

Gavin turned on his heels and stomped into where RK assumed the kitchen was. The clanking of a plate and cutlery confirmed his suspicion. 

Not sure about what to do, the android stood idly in the living room. He wondered if showing affection towards Gavin’s cats would get the desired results of improving their relationship. RK knew that technique had worked for Connor and Lieutenant Anderson. His predecessor adored the Lieutenant’s dog, Sumo, which had let to them spending lots of time together, which in turn had resulted in them beginning a romantic relationship.

That might be overdoing things a little, RK figured. Being able to work with Gavin properly would suffice for him for the time being. But even in achieving that, showing appreciation for the detective’s pets could help greatly. Surely, the cats were more cleanly than Anderson’s slobbering mess of a dog.

As if she had read his mind, Skittles bumped into RK’s leg again, rubbing her head against it and looking up at him expectantly. Her fur was a beautiful red color, RK noted as he crouched down and carefully ran his hand over the animal’s head. The cat meowed cheerfully and immediately pressed her face into RK’s palm.  
“You’re female, right?”, RK found himself asking, blinking in confusion. Talking to animals as if they would answer was a very Connor thing to do. Maybe, his predecessor had rubbed off on him more than he had thought. 

Before RK could dwell on it more deeply, the sensors in his right thigh registered the impact of several small but sharp objects on his skin. Turning his head, he found that Furball had apparently attempted to climb him but had underestimated its size and was now dangling off his leg. Carefully, RK held the kitten with one hand, while extracting its claws from the fabric of his pants with the other.  
“Come here”, he muttered, putting the small animal down onto his thigh. His pants were ruined now, anyway, so there was no harm to be done by indulging the kitten. 

The android ran his hand through Furball’s grey fur and noticed immediately that it was longer and much softer than Skittles’. It was very pleasant to touch, so he kept on combing his fingers through it. A clearly jealous Skittles meowed at him from where she sat next to his other leg and a few seconds later RK found himself with two hands full of cats and not minding it one bit.

“I am SO going to send Connor this!”

RK looked up just in time to see Gavin take a picture of him while balancing a plate in the other hand.

“He’s going to love this”, the detective rambled on, “Better be prepared for him to tell you all about how he loves petting animals. That’s basically why I never mentioned I had any while he was around. He’d probably have asked to come over and pet them.” 

RK was just about to alert his partner to the glaring flaw in his logic, when Gavin seemed to realize himself, glaring at his phone.

“Eh, guess he knows now.”

The detective tucked away his phone and turned his attention to the sandwich on his plate.

“Aren’t you going to sit down to eat that?”, RK wondered.

“Nah. I might be an asshole but I’m a polite asshole. Mom told me never to go sit in another room to eat when you have guests”, Gavin replied around a mouthful of food, “And if I sit down, I end up with a face full of cat. Lunch is the only thing Bob actually hunts.”

RK could not suppress the amused snort that escaped him at the mention of the fat, black cat on Gavin’s sofa. 

“It’s true! Ungrateful little shit never plays with any of the toys I get him, he doesn’t even run from danger, but if I dare drop as much as a single Dorito the race is fucking on, it’s ridiculous.” 

“Oh! So, is that why you throw yourself to the floor to retrieve it, whenever you drop something at the precinct?”, RK asked, arching a brow. He had noticed at a few occasions that whenever Gavin dropped something, he was under the table to get it back before even an android could react. Having solved this puzzle, unimportant as it may be, filled RK with a sense of pride.

“Fuck. I do?!”, Gavin groaned and glared at Bob, “You hear that, dipshit? You got me conditioned!” 

Bob lazily got to his feet, yawned, stretched, and laid back down.

Gavin flipped him off, before returning his attention to his lunch. He finished the sandwich in silence, while RK kept petting Skittles and Furball. The latter had begun crawling over all the parts of RK’s body it could reach, leaving tiny holes in the fabric and hair all over the android’s clothes.

“You wanna borrow my lint roller before we go back to work?”, Gavin asked eventually, “Wouldn’t want you to look less than perfect and have the other androids laugh at you.” 

“I would like that very much, thank you”, RK replied, looking up from the cats and directly into Gavin’s eyes, “And thank you for the compliment, too.” He tried replicating the cheeky grin he had seen Connor shoot Lieutenant Anderson but was not sure, whether he was successful or not. Gavin blushed, nonetheless. 

With a string of muttered curses Gavin first returned his plate to the kitchen and then went to retrieve the lint roller. Pointedly not looking at RK, he handed it to the android. RK got to his feet and gently sat Furball down before he began cleaning the sleeves of his jacket. He then bent down to remove the cat hair from his pants. It was a futile effort, however, given the fact that Furball and Skittles were still rubbing themselves against every part of him they could reach. Furball even began to look up at him and meowing pitifully. 

“I can’t believe this”, Gavin muttered, “I let you into this house and it takes all of thirty minutes for my cats to like you more than me.”

“I doubt they prefer me over you. They are probably just interested because they don’t know me, yet”, RK replied and handed the lint roller back to Gavin.

“Yeah whatever”, the detective sighed and took a step to come to stand behind RK. There was a long moment of silence and the android was just about to ask if anything was the matter, when Gavin began speaking again.

“You got some fur on the back of your legs too”, he stated and cleared his throat awkwardly, “Do you have some wacky android shit going on, where you can just dislocate your shoulder and get it yourself or do you want me to get it?” 

RK blinked a few times, confused by the offer. To call the fact that the detective, who usually attempted to boss him around at every turn, now freely offered to do something for him was a surprise, would be the understatement of the century. But maybe, just maybe, it was a sign that Gavin also wanted to improve their relationship and RK would have to be an idiot not to accept an olive branch like this.

“I would be very grateful if you could help me”, he said and stood perfectly still, as Gavin knelt and worked each of his legs with the lint roller, grumbling as he went. When the fingers of Gavin’s right hand accidentally grazed one of his buttocks an electrical spark burst through the entirety of RK’s body and he had to do everything in his power not to move. But, if the way Gavin’s movements stilled and he cleared his throat once more were anything to go by, there had been a reaction after all. The detective got to his feet and RK watched him hurriedly leave the room to put away the lint roller. 

When he returned, Gavin did not look at him, bending down and picking Furball up to cradle her in his arms instead.

“You know I love you to bits and if I could, I’d put you into my hood and take you to work with me”, the detective told the kitten in a soft voice, “But if you try to break out again, when we leave in a minute, I will end you. Understood?” Furball meowed and pressed her head into Gavin’s chest until he had to put her down again.

“You good to go?”, Gavin asked, finally looking at RK again with a raised brow, “Did we use our lunch break efficiently and became cop buddies?”

“I guess we took a good first step”, RK announced and could not help the amused smirk that spread on his face, “But I do think we should repeat this exercise now and again. I’d like to visit you more often. And get to know your cats.” 

The android watched a deep blush rise on Gavin’s face and hoped it was not too obvious that he had said the last part on a whim. Even though he had been a deviant from the moment of his activation, the way in which he sometimes said and did things without protocols telling him to do so still surprised him. Which did not mean he had not meant what he had said to his partner. Today, he had seen a side of Gavin Reed that he was sure not many people knew of. It must have been an immense display of trust for the detective to let his guard down like this. Or, maybe, he had not done it intentionally and the cats just had that effect on him. Either way, RK wanted to see more of that side of Gavin.

“Yeah, sure, whatever”, the detective shrugged, “If I find you trying to smuggle one of them out of here under your weirdo-jacket, though, you’re not making it out of here alive.”

“Understood”, RK replied with a nod and a smile.

“Alright, enough of that now. We gotta go back to work”, Gavin announced and started walking towards the front door, “We wouldn’t want to be late for the half-hour of Connor bouncing up and down by our desk, pestering us about the cats.” 

RK followed the detective out of the door and although the thought of having to indulge his predecessor with stories about the cats made him a little weary, he found that the idea did not bother him too much, either. All he could think about, as he followed Gavin down the stairs was how much he wanted to return to his flat and watch Gavin smile soft and content around his cats for a while longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
Comments and kudos are much appreciated! Or say hi on twitter @NoiseStrangest !


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